Esperanza Aguirre

Esperanza Aguirre (3 January 1952-) was President of the Community of Madrid from 21 November 2003 to 26 September 2012, succeeding Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon and preceding Ignacio Gonzalez Gonzalez. She was a member of the People's Party of Spain.

Biography
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma was born in Madrid, Spain in 1952, and she was an early member of the Club Liberal de Madrid before standing in the 1983 Madrid local elections. Aguirre was a self-defined liberal who admired Margaret Thatcher, and she sought to combine conservatism and neoliberalism; Aguirre emerged as a leader of the Popular Party of Spain's right-wing years later. In 1987, she joined the Alianza Popular party, and she served as a Senator from 1996 to 2002 (and as President from 1999 to 2002), as a member of the Assembly of Madrid from 2003 to 2012, as Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport from 1996 to 1999, and as President of the Community of Madrid from 2003 to 2012. In 2012, she resigned due to health concerns, but she remained involved in local politics. On 2 September 2019, she and fellow PP Madrid politicians Ignacio Gonzalez Gonzalez and Cristina Cifuentes were charged with illicit funding, diversion of public money, and document forgery.